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I bought water from my LFS to put in a new tank 10 gal. I bought the fish, Cherry Barbs 3 (2m-1f on accident was suppossed to be 2 f-1m), came home, set the tank up, put in fish. That was on the 24th. Bought new heater. Had some probs with getting temp set. Last night thought it was working good. Didnt turn on the heat in my house over night and it got down to 55 in my house. this afternoon, the temp had dropped a few degrees in my tank. UGH! On the 26th my fem died. She never really did my of anything after I brought her home. The males didnt bother her. BOught 2 fem cherries on the 26. They had done fine until this afternoon my biggest female, who had become the boss and was most active was dead floating on the water. I got my new aquarium pharm master test kit yesterday. When i checked my water this is what it was.
Ammonia 0 checked 2x. Nitri was between 0.25 and 0.50. Nitrate was really red between about 40-80. OK. When i put the tube of water beside the color card I get one reading. When I place the tube over the colors I get another. I am judging the readings for when the tube is placed over the colors by whether or not I can see the coloron the cartd through the tube. On the high range ph the color is not on the card. its below 7.4. On ph it looks like it matches the 6.4 when I place tube over card but when I hold it against the card beside the colors, it looks 7.2. When I test my tap, the hr ph is below 7.4 and the ph is the same as what I read in my tank. These fish s=till dont care to eat. I tried holding flakes under water, mashing the up, dropping whole flakes and crushed flakes into tank. Tried frozen bloodworms. 2 differ types of flakes. Cant find Hikari micro pellets here. Thats what some heer feed theirs. My LFS said the didnt think they would eat pellets. UGH!! I dont know. I bought an albino, young, cory cat to keep the bottom clean because after every feeding I have to net out the uneaten food. Thought he could clean it up some. Any suggestions? Whats going on in my tank? The water the LFS gave me was the water from the tank the barbs where in. The tank is super clean. Ive done 1 small water change since setting it up. One very small gravel vac to just get up the uneaten food I couldnt net out. I didnt get down in the gravel, just kinda touched the top of it. OK. I think thats all. Oh, on the profiles heer it says Cherries like a ph of 6-8. Is my ph ok??? My high range ph? Help!

Mine eat what ever I give them. Give them time to get used to their new tank.

Just curious are you cycling the tank with cherry barbs?? Just want to know as zebra danios are my cycling fish and I prefer cherry barbs but didnt want to risk it as it wasnt listed as a cycling fish.

Also for the cherry pH issue mine have endured just about everything within reason, my pH has dropped to 6.4 and gone as high as 7.4 so 6.8 or 7 is fine. Cherry barbs are extremely hardy fish and can take about anything (mine were the only survivors of a out break of ich).

Last edited by bcwcat22 at 29-Oct-2005 18:39

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

yes, bought them to use to speed up cycle but fell in love w them